The Life and Times of J.Z. Garrod
Strange and terrible musings from a world traveller who has been to very few places.Archive for Whimsical Musing
An MA in 5 Seconds.
As I begin the long, drawn out, and completely ineffectual period of stress that will precede the start of my MA this September, I found this while hitchhiking across the web:
The Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm:
1) Write down the problem.
2) Think very hard.
3) Write down the solution.
Missed Connections
Every now and then I partake in a guilty pleasure – I read the “missed connections” section of craigslist.
I don’t particularly read it to see if anyone saw the back of my head in a store, thought I was cute, and wants to get together. Actually, I skip over most of those postings and I’m sure my girlfriend is glad for that.
What I usually click on are the ones that don’t want to actually connect with anyone at all. I know it sounds strange, but these ones are special and serve to build a stronger bond with all of us.
You probably have no idea what I’m talking about, so I’ll give you an example. Today at work – like many days at work – there’s little for me to do and I’m following my usual pattern of perusal at all my regular internet locales – craigslist being one of them. I sneak into the missed connections and start reading some posts. The ones that make me all tingly inside are simply the ones that say something to the effect of “hey, you were at so and so today and you smiled at me. Thanks for making my day”. See, doesn’t that make your cold cold heart just warm up a bit?
It seems like there’s tons of posts about the simple things we do each day that allow us to connect with the rest of the world around us; a stolen glance, a smile, a shared laugh are all little things that create a bond with your fellow species. These things don’t cost anything to do and the reward for doing them is infinitely more than the time it takes to perform. An opened door, a friendly hello, an understanding look.
If there is anything at all we should look forward to in the new year, it is simply being kinder, gentler, and more compassionate to everyone else that shares this same fishbowl. I wish you all a much saner world in 2007.
Trend Setting
March 13, 2008 at 4:42 pm · Filed under Social Commentary, Whimsical Musing and tagged: newspapers shitting bathroom
As Malcolm Gladwell’s infamous book “The Tipping Point” demonstrates, small, often innocuous changes can create great trends; it happens in every potential facet of our social lives be it entertainment, fashion, politics, et cetera. In my own life, however, I’ve rarely been privy to such an event.
But no more.
I have not only witnessed the start of a trend, but I may have also been a prominent player in it’s creation.
On some small occasion many weeks ago, when I visited the office washroom facilities I noticed sitting at my feet the financial section of the Globe and Mail – and as such, picked it up and began to read. As weeks went on I was witness to this event on very rare occasions, but I would always enjoy reading the financial section that some gentleman had left behind.
And so it began that I started taking my own daily newspaper to the washroom with me, and henceforth leaving it for someone else to read. It was simply a free daily paper that was stacked at the entrance to the office building – not some great piece of literature, or even a national newspaper.
Yet, it sparked something quite remarkable. It seems that by constantly leaving a newspaper in the washroom everyday, I’ve given authority to the entire operation. When I go down the hall for my usual bathroom trips, I am now ankle deep in newspapers and I am quite certain that once I glanced a foreign-language publication. I am now able to read everything from travel to auto to entertainment. Remarkable!
So to the gentleman that brought that first newspaper? Shit on fine Sir, Shit on.
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